The Democratization of Employee Training

Despite an
improving economy, training and development budgets in most companies remain
lean. And increasingly, the responsibility for employee learning is being
pushed out to the line organization. Now managers must play a greater role in increasing
their staff's skills; and employees must take greater ownership for
their own development.

Welcome to the
democratization of training.

Control over and
choices about how training will happen are increasingly being distributed and
placed in the hands of the people… people who are already maxed out doing the
ever-growing laundry list of tasks before them.

Since necessity is
the mother of invention, leaders everywhere are finding solutions and
experimenting with a range of innovative ways to build skill and capacity. Here
are some of my favorites:

The video advantage

The manager of a local retailer struggled with getting key
messages out to her staff with fidelity. Months of trying a ‘cascading’ method of communicating through layers of supervisors looked
less like training and more like a child’s
game of telephone.

So, she took to her webcam and recorded video messages along
with the instructions for training activities that her direct reports would run
with their staff. This ‘plug
and play’ solution cost nearly nothing and has improved engagement and
customer satisfaction.

Listen while you learn

A distributed sales organization required ongoing
instruction around selling techniques, products, and changing customer demands.
But the training department was under-resourced and unable to provide the
prompt and ongoing support required.

Thankfully for the sales executives, recording a podcast is
as easy as scheduling a conference call. Leaders and even frontline reps now
take turns recording 10-15 minute updates featuring strategies, tips, success
stories and more.

The product development group has gotten in on it too,
recording and posting product update podcasts.

Now sales professionals — who are always on the go — can use
small pockets of travel time to listen and learn.

Experience plus

With the popularity of the 70/20/10 approach to training,
organizations and their leaders are increasingly gravitating toward experience-based
learning. And it makes sense: it’s
cost-effective, always accessible, customizable, and can even handle real work
that needs to get done.

The only problem is that an experience in isolation is not
learning. So, savvy leaders are beginning to provide the structure and support
required for development to be extracted from the development
activity.

For example, a line manager in a consumer products company
has created a simple two-sided worksheet that accompanies all on-the-job
development experiences. He holds a brief pre-meeting to set learning
objectives, link the experience to broader career or performance improvement
goals, and focus the employee’s
effort.

The employee uses this worksheet as a journal throughout the
experience, noting insights, challenges, and questions.

Book it

Does every new or enhanced skill demand a training
event? (Asks the woman who makes her living developing them!)

So much of the content employees need already exists. There
are hundreds — if not thousands — of books on nearly any topic of interest. And
many organizations are taking advantage of this.

Order a book for each employee, give them an appropriate
amount of time to read it, then schedule a discussion session… or add it to an existing meeting agenda. (Many publishers'
websites include book discussion guides with questions and other activities to
support bestselling titles.)

Some departments and organizations I work with have
instituted books clubs, with monthly selections and meetings to discuss and
apply key concepts.

Democratization brings freedom

The democratization of employee training — and the expanded
role of line leaders and employees in the construction of their own learning —
represents a powerful opportunity.

And with democracy comes freedom. Freedom from waiting for a
class on someone else’s
training schedule. Freedom from having to translate how generic courses relate
to your business. Freedom to meet employees where they are (literally through
mobile means and figuratively by offering the just-in-time, just-for-them
information required).

So, let’s
salute (and continue to support) line-leader-led learning!

Your turn:How are your managers and employees fostering
learning at the grass-roots?

Employee Development

Employee Development

By Julie Winkle Giulioni

Julie has spent the past 25 years improving performance through learning. As co-founder and principal of DesignArounds, Julie leads multi-disciplinary teams that create award-winning electronic and instructor-led training. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Julie is co-author of the Amazon bestseller, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want. To learn more, connect with Julie online or visit www.juliewinklegiulioni.com.